Bear Essentials

Maybe Michael Vick should just shut the H-E-double-hockey-sticks up.
He apparently can’t stop himself from sounding like a moron.
After all the idiotic and disgusting things he’s done, Vick says: “I'm happy that I turned out to be the person I am, and I wouldn't change anything about my life if I could."
Are you freakin’ kidding me?
Even when decent people say they wouldn’t change anything about their lives, they’re either lying, fooling themselves or being disingenuous. And a lot of what Vick has done is far from decent.
Vick told the Wall Street Journal, via the Philadelphia Daily News that: “As crazy as this may sound, going to prison really changed my life. I was able to go in and come out with a plan.”

According to ProFootballTalk.com, the Bears’ biggest need in this year’s draft is at wide receiver.
That’s garbage.
The Bears have do have their share of shortcomings at wide receiver. But QB Jay Cutler is capable of making each and every one of their pass catchers better – as long as he has an offensive line that can protect him. That’s the Bears’ No. 1 priority in the draft.
While Devin Hester may never be a No. 1 wide receiver, he’s still capable of scoring every time he touches the ball, and he attracts more attention from opposing secondaries than most No. 2 or No. 3 receivers.

On Wednesday, Pro Football Weekly’s draft analyst/talent evaluator Nolan Nawrocki said the Bears must address areas of need on the offensive line and at defensive tackle with their first two picks in the draft, three weeks hence.
Thursday, ESPN.com draft gurus Mel Kiper and Todd McShay agreed with that strategy in their three-round mock drafts.
Kiper has the Bears taking 6-foot-8 Colorado OT Nate Solder at No. 29 in the first round, North Carolina DT Marvin Austin in the second round, 62nd overall; and then going back to the offensive line for Penn State OG-C Stefen Wisniewsi.

If the Bears are steadfast in their desire to upgrade Jay Cutler’s protection with their first-round pick, it’s beginning to look as if they will get no better than the sixth-best offensive lineman at No. 29.
At least that’s the way Pro Football Weekly’s Nolan Nawrocki sees the first round unfolding. On a national conference call Wednesday, Nawrocki said USC’s OT Tyron Smith would probably go in the top half of the first round based on his Pro Day that reaffirmed his status as the most athletically gifted O-lineman in the draft.
However, Nawrocki still considers Lake Zurich High School and Boston College product Anthony Castonzo the No.1 offensive lineman.

When it comes to being a mentor to former Auburn QB Cam Newton, ex-NFL QB Warren Moon is already a failure.
At the first hint of criticism - from Pro Football Weekly's Nolan Nawrocki in the 2011 Draft Preview - Moon took the short-sighted and simplistic approach and cried "racism."
If his domestic violence and DUI arrests from the past didn't already prove it, Moon clearly demonstrated why he is unfit to advise others.

North Carolina defensive tackle Marvin Austin certainly cannot be called a sleeper, even after missing the 2010 season because he, like teammates Robert Quinn and Greg Little, accepted improper benefits from an agent while still in school.
And he’s certainly not a secret to the Bears, especially after Lovie Smith and defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli attended North Carolina’s Pro Day on Thursday. Marinelli actually ran the drills in which Austin and Quinn both looked superb.
But character concerns may cause all three players to be downgraded by some teams. Quinn is still expected to be a top-20 pick. He’s a 6-foot-4, 265-pound edge rusher, maybe the most gifted in the entire draft, and he runs the 40 in under 4.6.

With the draft just four weeks and one day away and no other non-legal NFL action on the horizon, it’s interesting to glance back at Jerry Angelo’s selections in his nine years of commanding the Bears’ war room.
Under Angelo, the Bears have drafted only 11 offensive linemen, six of them in the seventh (final) round. Only two of the 11 (Chris Williams and J’Marcus Webb) are starters for coach Lovie Smith, while Lance Louis is a backup.

A lot of them don’t mean diddly-squat, but in probably half of the mock drafts that are out there, Auburn QB Cam Newton is a top-five pick.
But not in Nolan Nawrocki’s most recent mock at Pro Football Weekly.com, where he has the Redskins taking the 6-foot-6, 250-pound Newton at No. 10. In Pro Football Weekly’s “Scout’s Notebook 2011,” which is hot off the presses and a must-read for all draftniks, Nawrocki presents some compelling reasons why Newton shouldn’t even be taken that early.
While Nawrocki concedes Newton’s physical skills are immense, he still considers the Auburn QB a risky gamble on greatness.

Team president and CEO Ted Phillips believes that the new league rule that moves kickoffs up five yards to the 35, not only unfairly penalizes the Bears, but it undermines the money they’ve spent on developing elite special teams.
“The rule got a lot of discussion at the league meetings (last week),” Phillips said on the Bears website. “Although it was passed for safety reasons, I think it definitely discriminates against clubs like the Bears. Not just because we have strong special teams and elite kick returners, but because we've invested a considerable amount of money in those players as well.”

Where to play Chris Williams in 2011? That is the question.
Will he get another shot at left tackle, which is where he played the first two games last season and where he was supposed to be entrenched by now after being drafted in the first round (14th overall) in 2008?
Will he remain at left guard, where he started the final 11 games last season? Will he wind up back at right tackle, where he made his first 11 starts at the beginning of the 2009 season before moving to left tackle for the final five games?
Coach Lovie Smith didn’t shed much light on the topic when he was asked recently if Williams played better at tackle in ‘09 or at guard in 2010?